Bybee v. Hageman
Supreme Court of Illinois
6 Ill. 519 (1873)
John and Elizabeth Ewald executed a senior mortgage to Hageman (plaintiff) securing purchase of a parcel containing a brewery, describing it only as "one acre and a half in the north-west corner of section five (5)" plus the brewery and malt-house, without stating the township or range; the Ewalds separately gave a junior mortgage to secure a note eventually assigned to Bybee (defendant). When Hageman sued to foreclose the senior mortgage, Bybee cross-claimed to foreclose the junior mortgage and argued the senior mortgage's legal description was void for failing to identify which of several "section fives" in the county the property occupied. The trial court entered foreclosure judgment for Hageman, and Bybee appealed.
Whether, under Illinois law, an ambiguous legal description in a recorded real estate document sufficiently identifies the subject property to give notice to subsequent claimants when the boundaries can be identified from information outside the legal description itself.